As a Canadian, the whole G20 business makes me terribly ashamed of my country. It makes me even more ashamed that people like the comments on the article exist.
At the risk of making this a political statement - what else can you expect from the population that elected Rob Ford?
As a Torontonian, this G20 fiasco is definitely the blackest of black eyes on our otherwise great city. I don't know one citizen of TO that thought it was a good idea to host that in downtown TO.
Why didn't they have the whole thing (G20 in addition to G8) up in Huntsville, away from the city? For those not familiar with Toronto or this event, it completely shut down the downtown core, which houses all of the financial institutions that keep TO humming.
I'll bet they wanted it in Downtown TO just because there was better access to higher-quality hotels to house the leaders and their aides. They would rather spend billions in tax payer money to try and bring the downtown core of Toronto under martial law for a few days than to host the conference somewhere where the attendees might have to be in a hotel room that doesn't qualify as a presidential suite.
I agree with you, it was dumb to put it in Toronto after what happened in Quebec city. And that he's the only one left in jail is even more telling. They have to convict someone it seems for all the billions on a couple day event.
At the risk of making this a political statement - what else can you expect from the population that elected Rob Ford?